Entrepreneurs: Out dress ‘um
The corporate workforce is full of jokes about the pain and consternation of Mondays. Those of us who start our own businesses generally would not know a weekend if it stole our wallets, but out of respect for the else-employed I have chosen to dedicate Mondays to the hardest part of starting up your own business. Monday’s are dedicated to the mistakes and missteps I and others I know have made in the working-without-a-net world of entrepreneurship. Here is to hard knocks, prices paid, and lessons learned on the hoof.
Today’s story comes from my own first start-up, a retail storefront.
At twenty-two years of age I had a cracker-jack accountant, a dazzlingly charming business partner, and exactly one suit. I had heard all the bromides about dressing for success and the importance of appearing professional in the professional world, so I bought myself a slick charcoal-grey Armani knockoff.
During the hectic months of work preceding opening day I wore that suit almost constantly. I wore it to every meeting; with the loan officers, with my Small Business Administration representative, to my very first Chamber of Commerce meeting…boy did I feel like a clown. If you’ve ever been to a Chamber of Commerce meeting (particularly during a searing New Mexico autumn) you know that cotton polos and short sleeves are the norm. My SBA rep gave me a sympathetic look and assured me that there was no need to impress her. As to the bankers, maybe the suit was a good idea and maybe it was not, but I certainly did not get a loan.
Meanwhile, I was negotiating for a storefront. The landlord who owned my business’s dream site was traveling, but we nailed down the lease details via email and all that left was to sign the papers.
The morning of our meeting rolled around, hot and getting hotter, and the mere thought of wearing all that dark wool made my skin crawl. “No-one in New Mexico is that formal” I thought, so I pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. We met, talked, did a quick walkthrough of the site, and then returned to his office to sign the papers. His secretary printed out the lease, and we started filling in the various numbers. Over email, the landlord and I had agreed to first and last month’s rent up front, but, literally with pen over paper, the landlord asked that we pay the first two months, as well as the last month’s rent, before he lets us have the keys…and he wanted cash or a casher’s check, si vous plais. That is $2,000 he wanted to extract from my first month’s operating capital.
Well, it was our dream site, and these little emergencies are exactly what we included a cushion into the budget for, so we signed the lease and paid the man.
Two months later I returned his office to pay our third month’s rent. I asked him if he would accept a business check. He smiled and said, “No problem. I only wanted that first one in cash because, well, by looking at you, I wasn’t sure you guys had two nickels to rub together.”
Obviously we made it through the first month, but cash flow was tight enough that that extra two grand would have come in mighty handy. I should have worn the suit. Today’s lesson: Out dress ‘um. Better to be overdressed for nine meetings out of ten than to give the wrong impression to the one guy who holds your business’s profitability in his hands.
One Comment
Anthony
August 14th, 2006 at 9:03 am
I don’t know if out-dressing most of the time is such a good idea. In my own experience, out-dressing those you do business with usually leads to losing their respect and comaraderie, both of which you work very had for. You said it yourself - it makes you look like a clown. And I don’t think it’s necessarily better, as somebody in busines, to look like a clown 9 out of every 10 meetings.
I tend to dress much more casually now than I did when I started my business a few years ago. The feedback has generally been much better, and the results (in terms of numbers and dollars) are much better as well; if you are more down to earth, people tend to think you are more amicable. This means they are more willing to open up to you, both on a personal and business level. And that’s really what it’s all about.
I guess what it comes down to is gaining a knowledge for your surroundings. If you’re just starting out and you’re not sure, fine, be safe and dress your best every time. But once you get to know the types of people you are meeting, the types of environments you will be in, etc, don’t over-do it. There’s nothing worse than somebody who knows he/she will be around people wearing polos, and still insists on wearing a suit. It doesn’t make you look professional; it makes you look arrogant.
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